


he wanted to shake the earth

by hey there sunshine -- (thatsquite_punwise_ofyou)



Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen, bro idk i just wanted superhero au that's all
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-21
Updated: 2020-11-21
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:41:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,765
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27650819
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thatsquite_punwise_ofyou/pseuds/hey%20there%20sunshine%20--
Summary: just a super short superhero story :) it's like super rushed but i love: them
Relationships: Jin Chai && Akasai Kajiyama





	he wanted to shake the earth

**Author's Note:**

  * For [for miles :)](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=for+miles+%3A%29).



“please stop-”

jin could hardly see through his eyes swimming with tears, tears as hot as the fire licking his chin and face, tears that burnt as much as the malicious tongues did. the blurry shapes he _could_ make out were hazy attempts at a human figure, dark and imposing upon his impaired vision, a shadow that consumed everything jin couldn’t see.

he wanted to cry out for his mother, wanted to do something to stop the way his head was being baked like the bread he’d made with his own hands just yesterday. but he couldn’t. he was just jin. the mighty earthshaker might’ve stood a chance against inferno, inferno the devil that held jin’s face captive in flames, but the earth wasn’t shaking and jin couldn’t see. the flames groped closer to his eyes, hungry for their sight.

the last thing he saw before the flames were fed: a pair of eyes, boring into his. dark. blank. but… reluctant. why were they reluctant?

…

jin was a baker. technically, a professional one, if you counted anyone who got paid for baking as a professional, but he wasn’t sure if working part-time at the local bakery while trying desperately to pay off the bills that stacked up as hills grew into mountains really counted. he supposed it did, he mused as he kneaded the dough to a loaf of bread that would make one customer very happy. sscitrus pastries always were jin’s favourite; the zest springing into his mouth and singing flavours louder than any orchestra was an easy treat to make and enjoy. certainly the person who’d ordered the bakery’s products in bulk thought so.

the name kajiyama didn’t stick out particularly to jin, other than its asian connotations that his own name shared. his boss mentioned when the order was placed that the kajiyamas were a notorious business family, but jin had neglected to look into it further. it wasn’t as if the people his products were going to would matter; he would put the same effort into anything he made, regardless.

it would’ve been nice to work full-time, but with school and a million other things screaming for jin’s attention and throwing protest parties every time he tries to relax a little or spend a little more time at work, enjoying his hobby, it seemed impossible to do anything without going deaf. jin decided to view it as a stroke of luck when he was asked to stay in a little longer today, though, specifically to fill in this big order. it was easier to look at things at strokes of luck, just as it was easier to see in the light rather than the dark, easier to be a superhero than to use his powers for ill.

jin was a baker, but that wasn’t his only skill. he moonlighted as a superhero: earthshaker, with powers of manipulating the lithosphere itself.

he hadn’t been a superhero for long, though. he’d hardly had time to figure out he even had powers, much less how to use them effectively! the call to heroism wouldn’t even have crossed jin’s mind had there not been a need for it: inferno. a supervillain with powers of fire, gaining notoriety in the news ever day.

jin had a strong sense of justice. in his dungeons and dragons phase in middle school, his friends had been quick to peg him as lawful good: he wanted to help people, and he wanted to do the right thing. even as he lived out his sweet dreams of working in a bakery, sometimes jin would imagine himself as a hardened police officer, arresting crooks and doing what he could to make the world a little bit better.

it only made sense for him to turn to heroism when a superpowered threat arose. it only made sense for him to go against inferno time and time again.

the first time they faced off, jin – earthshaker – barely had a name for himself, and even less control over his powers. pebbles quivered at his command, but not because they might’ve been about to move; they were laughing. it only surprised him that the villain that would soon become his ‘archnemesis’ didn’t laugh, either.

in fact, inferno didn’t seem to do much of anything. he appeared, committed a crime, usually arson, stared down earthshaker for a few minutes, indulged in some combat, then made his getaway. it was that formulaic, that simple. sometimes jin wondered if he was fighting a robot.

the order was complete, the rolls and breads and pastries cheerily tucked away in their neat packages, quite cosy and as happy as a daycare during naptime. careful not to jostle the goods, jin gently slid the boxes into the bag that would be carted off and delivered to the kajiyamas. he hoped they enjoyed the fruits of his efforts, the smoke of his fire, the tsunamis of his earthquake.

...

as jin walked home one evening, he was listening to music. he was twenty years old and he still had no idea what his music taste was. right now, he was listening to something soothing. it had a ukulele and a ragged girl’s voice, layered with what might’ve been meditation music. a strange blend, but it lent itself nicely to the thoughts strumming around his brain as easily as the uke must’ve been strummed in the song.

reveries were funny things. you could be lost in your own world, so deeply engrossed in the depths of your own mind, that you get hit by a car- or that you stumble right into a streetlamp, or another person. for jin, his reverie was interrupted by none of those things. but he wished it had been.

smoke. since fighting inferno for the past eight months, jin had come to associate smoke with a lot of things. terror. imminent death. the cold, blank eyes that sometimes found his when earthshaker fought his archnemesis. so it was with the alertness that comes with a rush of panicked adrenaline setting off the internal alarms that jin picked up the pace and lifted his head from the sidewalk to locate the source of the smoke. where there was smoke, there was an inferno.

and jin found the inferno just around the block.

...

speed was of utmost importance when it came to saving people from a burning building. that was one of the first things earthshaker had learnt when he’d first started combating his pyrokinetic opponent. and it was with this learnt attribute of speed that earthshaker assisted the three or four dozen people who’d inhabited the small office building that was under attack.

with civilians safe and out of the way, it was time for earthshaker’s least favourite part: the confrontation.

combat wasn’t something jin had ever been taught. what he did in the fights that often ensued in his line of work was purely improvised, apart from the ninja movies he used to watch as a kid.

ninja movies didn’t prepare earthshaker for what happened in the burning office building, though. maybe inferno had been going easy on him, before- maybe he was having a bad day, whoever he was, and could only take it out on earthshaker.

that didn’t make the punch in the gut hurt less. or the throbbing in his head after a blow there. or the way his legs crumpled out from under him. all too quickly for earthshaker to protest, much less motivate the rubble around to fight for him.

“ow-!” his mouth said, hissing out the cry of pain with little choice in the matter. he couldn’t see, ash and soot filled his eyes instead of tears. he only knew he was on the ground, and his back had just cracked like a glowstick. was inferno standing on him? how pathetic of jin...

_stand up_ , he silently ordered himself, _get up. you’re a hero. you’re a hero._

earthshaker’s arms pushed. his body was heaved into the air. inferno’s body stumbled back. earthshaker’s eyes tracked the movement and widened as he registered something like surprise in his unflappable enemy, like hearing a songbird scream hideously.

“you’re going down with the rest of this building, inferno,” earthshaker said with breaths that lived up to his name. “you can surrender peacefully, or i’m going to take you down.”

earthshaker had never heard inferno speak before, which only added to his _is inferno a robot?_ theory. but the masked man with blank eyes opened his mouth, and let out two simple words:

“give up.”

was he joking? jin- earthshaker fumbled for words.

“er- going down it is, then!”

crack. thud. _ouch_. jin didn’t even have time to register what happened; all he knew was that his arm was going numb and he knelt on crying knees. his body hung supported by another person’s hand; surprisingly cold, considering the blaze around jin. his body hung by that hand like a puppet with one string left, a frayed string that could snap any moment and leave the poor puppet boy at the mercy of gravity, of the floor.

“please stop-” he tried to cry, but the words were barely gasped out. his throat itched painfully, scratchy and irritated from the smoke-ridden air and falling jungle of wood and building.

the cold hand grew warm. jin wished he could’ve done something better. he wished he could see his mother again, one more time. he wished those large black eyes, dull, lifeless, burning into his skull, would stop. why did those eyes look so sad? those weren’t the eyes of a villain. where was the cruelty, the coldness? where was the maniacal joy in the suffering of others? why was inferno so... empty?

the warm hand went cold. the flames that had numbed and scorched jin’s face and chin died down and gave way to the pain.

“you need help,” inferno said. the second thing jin had ever heard him say. his red and swelling jaw wanted to drop, but it hurt too much.

“you’ll find a sum of money deposited in your bank account, jin.”

_what?_ , jin wanted to scream, but he couldn’t. his eyes swam with fatigue and ash and tears. inferno knew his name. inferno knew who he was. inferno could have killed him. his breaths came in short pants. his eyes began to swivel...

“and... i liked your citrus bread.”

...into the back of his head. jin fell. the paramedics in the ambulance found him. jin woke up in a hospital. his bills were paid for. “by who?” he’d asked. “an anonymous benefactor,” the nurse had said.

why?


End file.
